Heretofore, much pleasure has been experienced by persons who are skillful enough to maneuver and stay upright on skate boards with roller-skate-like wheels underneath a platform having a flat surface. However, although skate boards have been in existence for many years, no one has ever applied the standup principle to a motorized snow vehicle.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a motorized snow vehicle designed for a person to stand on it with the control of the steering being done by the operator's hand by means of a steering unit extending sufficiently high above the frame as distinguishes from a snow vehicle of the riding type.
A further distinction from snowmobiles of the "sitdown" riding type is that there is a sufficient space provided on my vehicle behind the steering unit to permit the operator's body to stand there unobstructed by a seat or any other obstacle. A particular objective is to provide a stand-up snowmobile in which there is room behind a steering rod for the operator to have both of his feet on the platform with one foot in front of the other or the front of one foot in front of the front of the other.
Still another important feature is to provide the steering unit with a construction such that it can be moved from side to side at its upper end for controlling the direction of travel of the snowmobile from side to side.
Another feature is the control of the throttle of the engine by a suitable control unit at the top of the steering rod, the control unit being a rotatable handle with special connections in the mechanism to make it possible for the rotating of the handle to pull on the throttle wire of the throttle cable extending down through a hollow steering rod.
Snowmobiles have relied on the upward curve of the forward end of a drive belt as it goes around a forward pulley for facilitating the climbing over of snow. But, I propose that the belt pulleys have a forwardmost pulley substantially higher than the remaining pulleys to sharply upturn the belt for excellent climbing over obstacles, with the belt held down at the necessary place on top by an idler pulley.
I contemplate that my snow vehicle would travel at high speeds, very high speeds, in fact, when one considers that the operator will be standing up. Speeds as high as 40 miles an hour might be used. Since the frame would be short and no wider than to have space enough for the operator's feet, therefore, skill and coordination are very important. It is important that the operator be able to bend his body at the hips with his knees bent and with the handle at the height of his hip joint. A handle higher or lower then that would hamper the operator's balance and skill.
Since I have discovered that it is important for the handle to be at the operator's hip, I propose an adjustable steering rod to fit operators at different heights.
The same steering rod adjustability feature will allow the steering rod to be taken apart and folded down against the frame for compact shipment or storage, and yet will provide a stiff total rod of fixed length.